Our View: Sex ed option good idea

Editorial Board

We support state Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, in his effort to pass a bill that would allow parents the option of receiving sex education training in order to teach their children sex education at home.

A lot of parents, for various reasons, are concerned about their children being taught sex education in a public school.

This seems to us to be an excellent option. Parents can take an active role in the subject and their children will not suffer by being denied the needed lessons on sex.

The bill, presented to the Education Interim Committee, is in draft form. It merits being a priority in the 2013 legislative session.

Reid says that he has been assured by analysts that implementing the training would cost virtually nothing. State School Superintendent Martell Menlove has added that the state Office of Education will have no problems creating a training manual for parents.

Perhaps most importantly, the Utah PTA has given Reid’s bill a qualified endorsement. According to Dawn Davies, vice president of legislative affairs with the Utah PTA, so long as any funding the bill might need is provided for, the PTA is behind it.

As we have mentioned, providing training for parents to teach their children sex education will have at most, a minimal cost. More importantly, it provides a method to get sex education taught to children whose parents don’t want it taught to their kids in school.

As Reid told the Standard-Examiner, he was surprised to learn — while discussing sex education as part of his duties as a state legislator — that many parents do not teach it to their kids. "Parents need to take that responsibility. This is the most intimate topic in the lives of their children, and they should teach sex education with their values," he said.

He’s correct; and anything we can do in schools to help children learn sex education responsibly is a plus.